Daniel Korschun, associate professor and department head of marketing at Drexel, has died at 56
An expert on corporate social responsibility, branding, and marketing, he was motivated by “kindness, curiosity, inclusivity, and fun,” his family said.
Daniel Korschun, 56, of Philadelphia, a popular associate professor and award-winning head of the Department of Marketing at Drexel University’s LeBow College of Business, Fulbright scholar, author, lecturer, and world-class fencer, died Wednesday, July 17, of lung cancer at the Pavilion at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.
Dr. Korschun was an expert on corporate social responsibility, branding, marketing, and employee relations, and he was quoted often in The Inquirer and other publications in the United States, Canada, Italy, and elsewhere. He was especially adept at explaining the complex relationships between management and employees, sellers and buyers, and corporations and the public.
“Politics are so polarized now it’s very difficult to find that middle ground,” he told Bloomberg News in 2018. “Executives are forced to make a choice for one side or the other.” In 2015, he told the Concord Monitor: “Having a real sense of service to the community is a real motivator for employees. They feel their job is much more than stocking shelves. They’re really contributing to something larger.”
He joined Drexel in 2008 after earning a doctorate in business and marketing strategy at Boston University and rose to associate professor and head of LeBow’s Department of Marketing in 2018. He was also a fellow at Drexel’s Center for Corporate Reputation Management, and Center for Corporate Governance. In 2016, he was named Lebow’s Stephen Cozen Research Scholar in Marketing.
An energetic instructor who played music between classes, he taught undergraduates, graduate students, and doctoral candidates, and told family and colleagues that his greatest successes in the classroom came when he learned as much as his students. His signature outreach was what he called the Korschun Lifetime Guarantee, an offer to students to contact him anytime for anything.
In teacher evaluations, students called Dr. Korschun a “fantastic teacher, very engaging, friendly and fun to work with” and “one of the best professors at Drexel ever.” Colleagues said in online tributes that he was “a gifted scholar and even better person” and “kind, compassionate, and generous.”
He appeared on radio shows and spoke regularly at roundtable meetings, conferences, and seminars around the world. He loved to travel, spoke Italian, and was a visiting associate professor at LUISS Guido Carli University in Rome.
He won the 2013 Allen Rothwarf Award for teaching excellence at Drexel and was recognized often by groups for his writing and research. He co-wrote the well-received We Are Market Basket in 2015 and Leveraging Corporate Responsibility in 2011, and dozens of his papers, chapters, and articles appeared in the Washington Post, Harvard Business Review, Journal of Marketing, and other publications.
He was an associate editor at the Journal of Public Policy & Marketing and worked on editorial boards for other outlets. “He really was the best of the best and created such a legacy,” a former student said online.
In high school, Dr. Korschun traded ice hockey for fencing and went on to compete in college championships for Brandeis University, at the World Maccabiah Games in 1993, and in eight European world cups. He also coached fencing at Brandeis and Haverford College.
Friends noted his “infectious joy of life,” “sharp mind and keen heart,” and “sweet soul” in Facebook tributes. One friend said: “Dan had this way of smiling with his eyes that just made everything kind of lighter and brighter.”
Daniel Edward Korschun was born March 29, 1968, in New York. He grew up with his parents, Doré and Michael, and sisters, Suzanne and Camille, in Montreal and Shaker Heights, Ohio.
He earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology at Brandeis in 1992 and master’s degrees in business administration and management at Erasmus University in the Netherlands and Bocconi University in Milan, Italy, in 2000. He worked briefly as an analyst for a marketing and communications agency in Boston, and senior manager for brand management at Sony in New Jersey.
He married Marta Rodriguez in 2004, and they had daughter Sofia, and lived in New Hampshire and Society Hill. “He loved to learn, and he loved to teach,” his wife said. “He wanted to know what made people tick.”
Dr. Korschun liked to hike and bike and canoe. He and his daughter went ice skating on Sundays and sang opera wherever they were. They also threw wildflower seeds in vacant lots around town.
He listened to music of all kinds, routinely shoveled snow for friends in Canada, and took his wife on a memorable romantic quest for waterfalls and covered bridges. “He brought out the best in people around him,” his family said.
His sister Camille noted his “joy, love of life, connection with others, and good mischief!” His sister Suzanne said: “He was the root of a lot of fun.”
His wife said: “He was so full of life.”
In addition to his wife, daughter, parents, and sisters, Dr. Korschun is survived by other relatives.
A celebration of his life is to be at 5 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 1, at Drexel’s LeBow Hall, 3220 Market St., Philadelphia, Pa. 19104.
Donations in his name can be made to the Daniel Korschun Memorial Educational Fund at Drexel University,
Box 8215, Philadelphia, Pa. 19101.